Ethics and Morality

HOW LIKE HERRINGS AND ONIONS OUR VICES ARE IN THE MORNING AFTER WE HAVE COMMITTED THEM.

If one sticks too rigidly to one’s principles, one would hardly see anybody.

AN UNFORTUNATE THING ABOUT THIS WORLD IS THAT THE GOOD HABITS ARE MUCH EASIER TO GIVE UP THAN THE BAD ONES.

I ALWAYS ADVISE PEOPLE NEVER TO GIVE ADVICE.

Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

You can think clearly only with your clothes on.

I WISH PEOPLE WEREN’T SO SET ON BEING THEMSELVES, WHEN THAT MEANS BEING A BASTARD.

THERE IS ONLY ONE POSITION FOR AN ARTIST ANYWHERE: AND THAT IS, UPRIGHT.

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

Duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself.

Let the credulous and the vulgar continue to believe that all mental woes can be cured by a daily application of old Greek myths to their private parts.

We are here on earth to do good for others; what the others are here for I have no idea.

Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular all his life long.

Let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.

One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.

Society is joint action and cooperation in which each participant sees the other partner’s success as a means for the attainment of his own.

The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellowmen; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

Men are apt to offend (‘tis true) where they find most goodness to forgive.

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.

Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.